Page 76 of The Life We Left Behind

“Kind of running out of them,” Booker joked.

He wasn’t wrong. Booker barely tolerated them. It must have been months since he’d been back at that house, and I doubted he’d find another excuse to push him there for a long time to come.

Xander was too busy to come back. Or at least that was what he told them. He had his own medical practice, his own life in the city. One he built without any of the rest of us in it. He might drop by every other Christmas, but he never stayed for long. It was a tactic I wished I’d adopted right now.

And then there was Gage. He disappeared the night that he graduated, taking nothing but his motorcycle and nothing else. His note said not to look for him, that he was going to see what the rest of the world held for him, and he was never coming back.

And now I knew why.

A part of me felt responsible. He was my brother, and it was getting caught up in my drama that made him feel like he couldn’t be part of our family anymore. Not that there was really muchfamilywhen it came to the house we lived in. The fractured group of people we’d become couldn’t live up to the label.

“Do you think we could find Gage?” I asked Booker quietly. “He could…he needs to know that he can come back here if he wants. That I’m not angry with him.”

Booker shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t know how we’d track him down after all this time.”

I could hear the rage in his voice. It wasn’t aimed at me or our lost brother. I knew that because I felt it too.

Gage was one more thing that our mother had stolen from us.

Val’s ears suddenly pricked, and she turned to look toward the front of the house. My heart immediately kicked into high gear as the sound of tires crunching on the gravel driveway flowed into the quiet kitchen. This conversation was far too heavy to have before spending the day with my son. It was a mistake to bring this up now. I didn’t want this to sour our time with him.

This was how my mother worked. Seeping inside the people around her and ruining any chance of having something good.

Then I heard a car door slam shut, and it was like a switch flipped in my head.

They were here.

My head snapped toward the sound before I glanced back at Booker who had the biggest smile on his face. It was kind of strange to see.

“Let’s go see our boy,” he said gruffly, standing from his seat and then waiting for me.

It didn’t take long because I was up and striding toward the door before the second car door even had the chance to close. Val darted ahead of us, and I found myself jogging to catch up.

This was my family. The people I had around me now, and I wasn’t going to let the past pollute the opportunity I had in front of me.

I could hear the sound of Cade’s excited voice as I opened the front door, and the sight that greeted me was nearly enough to choke me with emotion.

Delaney was standing with her back to us as Cade practically vibrated with excitement next to her. The morning sun made her dark hair look like it glowed with copper, and as she tipped back her head to laugh, the breeze gently picked it up away from her neck, flashing the creamy soft skin beneath.

Even in just a flannel shirt and a pair of jeans, she was perfection. The memory of how it had felt to hold her in my arms, to run my hands across her skin and revel in the softness of everything that was Delaney filled my head.

She ran her fingers through Cade’s hair as he looked up at her with the biggest smile on his face. The bond between the two of them was undeniable. I always knew she’d be a good mom. There was nothing she couldn’t do, and the greatest honor of my life had been being loved by the woman in front of me.

Growing up surrounded by that made Cade the luckiest kid out there.

This was my future.

This was what I’d always dreamed of, and even though I’d missed out on so much up until now, I wasn’t going to miss a moment longer if I had anything to say about it.

Delaney looked over her shoulder at me, and her soft smile confirmed that she knew exactly what was happening. A touch of pink came to her cheeks as she ducked her head in embarrassment. She never did like to be the center of attention.

“Trace!” Cade cheered when he caught sight of me stalled at the top of the porch steps, staring at the two of them in wonder. “You’ve got a dog!”

Val sat on the top step waiting to be told that she could go to greet them, and I didn’t have the heart to tell him that she wasn’t mine. Maybe Booker would let me steal his dog.

When I looked across at him, I could tell by the look on his face that he knew exactly what I was thinking.

“Go on, Val,” Booker said. “Her name’s Valentine. She helps me out around the ranch.”

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